January 27, 2025
IsraeI has arrested two members of the military for spying on behalf of Iran. One worked in Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, which was used last year to shoot down incoming Iranian missiles, and the other worked in Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon.
The first man stands accused of providing Iran with major intelligence on the Iron Dome and faces charges that could end up in a life sentence. The other appears to have done little more than post graffiti for Iran.
Both men are 21 years old and have since left active duty and are in the reserves.
A police spokesman said in a statement that the pair worked for Iran because they wanted the money.
The two have Russian names. It wasn’t announced if they were Russian-born or Israeli-born. The primary suspect, Yuri Eliasfov, started working for Iran only last September and later recruited his friend, Georgi Andreyev, into the espionage scheme, putting him in contact with the same Iranian agent.
No one said how Iran reached out to Eliasfov and recruited him. But Iran is known to have been using social media in Hebrew to troll for Israelis willing to work for the Islamic Republic.
Before the announcement of the two latest two arrests January 27, Israeli police had announced the arrests of 27 Israelis from September through December and charged them with joining 13 espionage cells organized by the Islamic Republic inside Israel. (See story in last issue of the Iran Times, page 11.)
Most of those schemes were small bore and hardly threatening to the Israeli state. But the fact that so many Israelis have been willing to do Iran’s work for it has shocked Israel.
It appears that all those recruited have been poor and have been willing to help Iran for the sake of money. It also appears that many of those recruited—but not all—refused to do anything major, like trying to assassinate Israeli officials.
They have scrawled graffiti on walls. They have taken photos of potential targets. They have firebombed a few cars.
It does not appear that any of the recruits have been Iranian-born. And some of them have been little more than petty thieves in Israeli society. Some had been convicted of sexual offenses and others were deserters from the Israel Defense Forces. One official described them as “marginalized” citizens.
The latest pair arrested in January both spray-painted graffiti and hung banners in Tel Aviv carrying the slogan “Children of Ruhollah,” referring to Ruhollah Khomeini. Andreyev does not appear to have gone beyond that before he got cold feet and quit. But Eliasfov went far beyond graffiti in what he did for Iran.
Police said Andreyev was only paid $50 before he bowed out, but Eliasfov was paid $2,500.
Eliasfov faces a charge of transferring classified information and aiding the enemy during wartime.
He served at an Iron Dome battery “and documented classified materials at Iranian handlers’ request,” Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported. He continued to provide his handlers with information and recorded a video detailing the operation of the missile defense system. Israeli army experts who reviewed the video determined that its contents could benefit Israel’s adversaries. The Ynetnews agency said the video contained information “at the highest classification level.”
Both told interrogators they were struggling financially and, for that reason, accepted the Iranian offer.
They were initially requested to spray pro-Iran graffiti in certain areas. Andreyev withdrew from the operation when he realized he could face legal repercussions for espionage.
Of the 27 arrested and charged last year, the most serious case appears to involve seven Israelis detained in October on charges of spying for Iran by collecting sensitive information on military bases.
According to prosecutors, the seven Israelis carried out around 600 espionage missions for the Islamic Republic. They were all residents of Haifa and the north and included a soldier who had deserted the Israeli army. Prosecutors also said some of them had been spying for Iran for around two years.
The military sites involved in the espionage allegedly carried out by the seven suspects included the Nevatim airbase, the base at which Israel’s F-35 warplanes are based and which was one of the targets of the Iranian missile attacks last year.
